A U.S. think-tank focusing on conflict resolution has given a prestigious award to Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, citing his “statesmanship” and “contributions to global development.”
Sarkissian received the John Edwin Mroz Global Statesman Award from the EastWest Institute (EWI) at its annual gala held in New York late on Wednesday.
“At a time when Armenia is undergoing a profound period of transition, Dr. Sarkissian has been entrusted with bringing about stability and offering a new vision for his country’s path towards a more democratic and prosperous future,” said the EWI chairman, Ross Perot Jr.
“Capably navigating his country through this spring’s Velvet Revolution, Dr. Sarkissian once again demonstrated the true value of statesmanship for the greater good,” he added at the event attended by dozens of dignitaries, among them Armenia’s, Georgia’s and Russia’s permanent representatives to the United Nations.
Sarkissian, who has been the EWI’s vice-chairman emeritus since 2005, lived in Britain for nearly three decades before the Armenian parliament elected him president of the republic in March this year. Armenia’s ensuing transition to a parliamentary system of government meant that unlike the previous heads of state, he has largely ceremonial powers.
Armenia - President Armen Sarkissian (L) meets with opposition leader Nikol Pashinian in Republic Square in Yerevan, 21 April 2018.
The 65-year-old former scholar was sworn in on April 9 a week before the start of dramatic protests against his predecessor Serzh Sarkisian’s attempt to hold on to power by becoming prime minister. The new president tried to defuse the resulting political crisis in the country.
In particular, he helped to arrange an April 22 meeting between protest leader Nikol Pashinian and Serzh Sarkisian, which ended in failure. With the nationwide mass protests continuing unabated, Sarkisian resigned the following day. Pashinian, 43, was elected prime minister by the parliament two weeks later.
Armen Sarkissian expressed delight at what he described as democratic change. “We must be proud of today’s Armenia,” he said on May 9.
Sarkissian sounded optimistic about Armenia’s future when he spoke at the EWI ceremony in New York. “The 21st century is the century when things will be done and ruled by new ideas, by new research conducted by those who are quick, by those who are young and energetic regardless of how old they are … And I do truly believe that the 21st century is Armenia’s century,” he said.
“We are a small state but a global nation,” the president went on. “There are not many nations of that sort. I do believe that small states but global nations that have the global connectivity can get together and build their own country. “
U.S. - Armenian President Armen Sarkissian addresses the EastWest Institute's annual gala in New York, 3 October 2018.
A physicist and mathematician by education, Sarkissian worked at the Cambridge University when he was appointed as newly independent Armenia’s first ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1991. He served as Armenia’s prime minister for four months in 1996-1997 before being again named ambassador in London.
His second ambassadorial stint was cut short in 1999 by then President Robert Kocharian. Sarkissian stayed in Britain and made a fortune there in the following decade, working as an advisor and middleman for Western corporations doing business in the former Soviet Union. He was appointed as Armenian ambassador to Britain for a third time in 2013.